Pelikan Edelstein Sapphire

[Gazcom]

I like inks that I can usually bring at work, ordinary enough for documents, but with that particular tone enjoyable for the user and for the reader. I was looking for a deep dark blue when I've been reccomended (by my evil stationer) to buy Pelikan Edelstein Sapphire Blue, misled by a ink swab card which looked a lot darker than the actual ink.
Pelikan Edelstein Sapphire is a quite ordinary blue ink, quite similar to the Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue, but with more shading and a hue more on the purple side of the colour spectrum.

 

It's quite difficult to describe Pelikan Edelstein, you could just say "It's an ordinary blue" without having someone contraddicting you, but I think there's something more to be told.

On white paper the Edelstein Sapphire looks intense, more like a purplish blue (you can see how much purple there is in the cromatography), with a good ammount of shading. Even if this ink clearly isn't my ideal blue, it stands out compared to the cheaper cousin of the 4001 line.
It behaves well on every paper, no bleedthrough or feathering on Schizza & Strappa paper and on tracing paper, a little motr on common copy paper. Has nice shading properties with all tipes of nibs and good drying times. Almost none waterproofness.

On swab test It seems unable to get darker than a certain ammount: the 2nd swab and the 3rd swab are about the same on every paper I used.

 

In the end, is this ink worth the price?

Even if I like it, even if lt leaves a noble looking colour on paper and makes your writing feel somehow "important", spending from 15€ to 20€ for an ink that can be easily mistaken with the 4€ Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue (especially to those who do not share our passion) leaves me a bit lost. I don't think this ink has the right features to be in a premium ink line like the Pelikan Edelstein. Don't mistake me, it's not a bad ink, it's not a bad colour, but in my opinion there are better and more exclusive blues in the same price range.

 

COPY PAPER

 

SCHIZZA & STRAPPA PAPER

 

TRACING PAPER

 

CROMATOGRAPHY

 

INKDROP ON TOWEL

Edited October 1, 2016 by Gazcom

[lgsoltek]

I agree with you!

[visvamitra]

Very thorough review, thank you

[Joban]

Great review. Many thanks.

[The Good Captain]

A great review of a great ink.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Liked the more paper test. Better paper gets better results.

 

I missed it the first time around...when it was new....to many expected Parker Penmann Sapphire. Don't know why. So it had low grades.

No one talked shading much...or used paper that was not good for normal shading.

 

To buy it I'd have to see it rated against other good to better blue shading inks.

Feathering is what Aventine does on good paper, so was glad to see Sapphire didn't feather on good paper.

[Tonux]

Hi

 

Thank you for the review. I like very much this color. For me it's a true blue.

 

Very acceptable for any use, except in some documents in which it is necessary to keep the data over time and in the most diverse conditions. It's not a permanent ink like Montblanc ISO 14145-2 ink, for example.

Edited October 11, 2017 by Tonux

[lapis]

Thanks for this review. My opinion is exactly the same. It's an "okay" ink, "ordinary", nastier maybe even "boring". Not the end of the world but then not "edel" enough to be in that league.

 

Mike ♫ ♬

[Bo Bo Olson]

The things I will do for a good shading ink....

Having  a sudden need for a blue shading ink....will go down the yellow brick road....tomorrow, if my B&N has it, they did last time a year ago, but only one bottle....so If so I will, if not...oh well.

[Bo Bo Olson]

They didn't have my pen in at my B&M, so I said lets look at inks, thinking about the Sapphire if he had it, but was shown proudly his 'new' line of Pilot inks.

And ended up with my very first Japanese ink....that was way over my price limit.

I didn't find Kon-Peki anywhere near Topaz. It was a normal darker blue ink, that shades a touch blue turquoise in an F regular flex nib.

 

I dug out a pen that fell to the bottom of my walnut humidor pen box, Lamy's torpedo shaped second tier  @ '50's Artis Ballit 92 FK. (in Germany an FK nib...kugal, meant the American Bump Under tipping.)(I have a loose same nib in gold, but saw no reason to change nibs in the stainless steel regular flex nib works fine.)

That Kon-Peki ink shades in a F nib.

So Sapphire ink falls back down the want list.